Khutba on Trade and Zakat

الحمد لله، الحمد لله الذي طهر أموالَ عباده بالركن الثالث من الدين، وجعل في تطبيقه الصحيح سر صحة الأمة والمسلمين، نحمده تعالى ونستعينه، ونشكره تعالى ونستغفره ونستغيثه، نعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات أعمالنا، من يهد الله فهو المهتد ومن يضلل فلن تجد له وليا مرشدا، ونشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له، له الملك و له الحمد، يحيي ويميت، بيده الخير، وهو على كل شيء قدير، ونشهد أن سيدنا و مولانا محمداً عبده ورسوله، وحبيبه وصفيه، بلغ الرسالة وأدٌى الأمانة ونصح الأمة، النبي الأمي الذي أرسله الله بالهدى والدين الحق، بشيرا ونذيرا بين يدي الساعة، صلى الله عليه وسلم وعلى آله وأصحابه ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.

أما بعد! فيا عباد الله اتقوا الله حق تقاته ولا تموتن إلا وأنتم مسلمون. يأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله وقولوا قولا سديدا يصلح لكم أعمالكم ويغفر لكم ذنوبكم. ومن يطع الله ورسوله فقد فاز فوزا عظيما. اتقوا الله فيما أمر وانتهوا عما نها عنه وزجر.

We often talk in terms of ibadat and muamalat and separate the deen accordingly, but in reality there is a great overlap between the two, for every muamalat is at some level an ibada, and every major ibada has significant transactional elements. IN other words, you cannot cut off the deen from the world you are living in, you can never make it purely about the relationship between you and your Lord, you must always take into account your relationship and dealings with other people. Shahada only comes into legal effect when it is witnessed by other people, the prayer must be established, not simply prayed, and that implies the congregational prayers in the mosques, prayer as a galvanising and unifying force for society, a public statement of unity. The start and finish of Ramadan is dependent on the sighting of the moon, an event which must be witnessed by a number of people and ratified by the leadership of the community, and Hajj is clearly the single greatest gathering of human beings on the planet, all unified in common voice and common purpose, acting as if they were one.
And then we have zakat, a pillar of the deen that could not exist without the wealth that is put into people’s pockets by muamalat. Zakat is the purifier of wealth, but there first must be wealth there to purify, and that wealth is obtained either through inheritance, lawful jihad, cultivation of land and livestock, or halal transaction. In an era when most family wealth has been siphoned through taxation, when there is no Muslim leadership to establish a lawful jihad, and the majority of Muslims have become urban dwellers for whom land ownership is a thing of the past, by far the most important means among these for generating wealth is muamala, whether that be in the form of trade or employment. Now, for the large part, employment in the modern era has become simply another form of slavery, with employees totally beholden to their employers and at their beck and call. You do what they require of you, even if it is not in the original job description, in exchange for a wage that barely allows you to subsist, let alone acquire wealth. The majority of those who slot into the employee paradigm live at the level of their income or beyond it and so never have wealth, zakatable or otherwise.
So, that leaves us with trade as the only viable way in the present day of bringing in wealth. A network of production, trade and exchange must be established, both among ourselves and wider afield, that forgoes the financial instruments and institutions of capitalism, for capitalism is the political manifestation of riba. Shaykh Abdalqadir says in his latest article, “…Modern kufr was based not in its culture but on a primal reconfiguring of nature – the introduction (contra naturam) of increase in the exchange. As a mathematical principle it was called usury. As a political system it was – or avoided being – called capitalism.”  
The Muslims must avoid these capitalist instruments, because not only is the consumption of riba direct disobedience of Allah, but it can never bring wealth and increase. Riba destroys, it does not create. It upsets the balance of the world. We are all in the same boat, and if you overburden one side, the whole thing will capsize and we will all be left with nothing. Allah says,

يمحق الله الربا ويربى الصدقات

the translation of which is, “Allah obliterates riba but makes sadaqa grow in value”  And He says,

وَمَا آَتَيْتُمْ مِنْ رِبًا لِتُرْبُوَ فِي أَمْوَالِ النَّاسِ فَلَا يَرْبُو عِنْدَ الله

the translation of which is, “What you give with usurious intent, aiming to get back a greater amount from people’s wealth, does not become greater with Allah.” Riba ultimately does not bring wealth in its wake, it only brings destruction. It is only by doing what our Lord and Creator has made lawful for us that we bring increase, for His every law and instruction to us is for our benefit not His. He created us in a particular way and upon a particular form and He knows best what befits that form and allows to be all that we are capable of being, what enables us to be healthy and successful human beings. We often forget our true nature, but we have one just like every other creature on the planet. And to ignore it and act in a manner befitting other creatures, such as the viruses consuming everything in their path or cattle living for their appetites alone, is to be mad and sick in the head. Would that not be your first reaction if you saw a cow barking and howling at the moon?
So what has Allah made lawful for us and commanded us to do? Allah says, 

وَأَحَلَّ اللّهُ الْبَيْعَ وَحَرَّمَ الرِّبَا

the translation of which is, “Allah has permitted trade and He has forbidden riba.” Trade – the exchange of goods for goods, goods for money, money for services, or services for goods. It is in the re-establishing of these transactions, in a manner pleasing to Allah and in accordance with His laws and the example of His Prophet, that our present and future well-being. For it is through trade that the wealth of our communities will be restored, and with the restoration of that wealth, the restoration of a great pillar of the deen, zakat, will be made possible.
And it is only through the restoration of zakat that the deen will be established, for zakat is the pillar that is missing – not prayer, for the mosques have never been so numerous nor so full, nor fasting, for even many of those who do not pray fast, and not Hajj, for millions each year still make the journey. But zakat has been changed from something obligatory to something optional, and from something taken to something given. It has become another form of charity, not the socially transformative force that it was. The pillar of zakat is missing in all but name, and any building without a pillar is a ruin that cannot function adequately as a home, a dar, and so we cannot truly have dar al-Islam without it.
Indeed, even your prayers become worthless and unacceptable without it, for it is only through the correct payment of zakat that any prayer finds acceptance with your Lord. Ibn Abbas said,

ثلاثة لا تقبل إلا بثلاثة، قال تعالى: "وَأَطِيعُواْ اللهَ وَأَطِيعُواْ الرَّسُولَ"، فمن أطاع الله ولم يطع الرسول لم يقبل الله طاعته، وقال: "أَنِ اشْكُرْ لِي وَلِوَالِدَيْكَ"، فمن شكر لله ولم يشكر لوالديه لا يقبل الله شكره، وقال: "وَأَقِيمُواْ الصَّلاَةَ وَآتُواْ الزَّكَاةَ"، فمن أقام الصلاة ولم يؤت الزكاة لا تقبل له صلاة

“There are three things that are not accepted until three other things are in place: Allah says, ‘Obey Allah and obey the Messenger’, so if anyone obeys Allah without obeying the Messenger, Allah will not accept his obedience; Allah says, ‘Thank Me and thank your parents’, so if anyone thanks Allah without thanking his parents, Allah will not accept his thanks; and Allah says, ‘Establish the prayer and pay the zakat’, so if anyone establishes the prayer without paying the zakat (that he owes), Allah will not accept his prayer.” So, whatever we can do to restore this pillar, we must do, for our individual well-being and the well-being of our societies are dependent upon it. We ask Allah to restore this pillar through restoring wealth to our communities and enable to implement it and carry it out in the manner most pleasing to Him.

أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم ولسائر المسلمين من كل ذنب فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور الرَّحيم.

الحمد لله الحمد لله رب العالمين، وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له وأشهد أن محمداً عبده ورسوله، صلى الله وسلم وبارك عليه وعلى آله وصحبه، والتابعين وتابعي التابعين ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.

أما بعد! فيأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله ما استطعتم واسمعوا وأطيعوا وأنفقوا خيرا لأنفسكم. يا عباد الله أوصيكم وإياي بتقوى الله وطاعته وأحذركم وإياي عن معصيته ومخالفته. قال الله تعالى في كتابه العزيز: إِنَّا أَنْزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ فَاعْبُدِ اللَّهَ مُخْلِصاً لَهُ الدِّينَ

Allah says in His Mighty Book, the translation of which is, “We have sent down the Book to you with truth. So worship Allah, making your deen sincerely His.”
With everything that we do, we must make sure we have ikhlas, that our intention is pure and unsullied, and that we realise what our final aim and goal is, to please our Lord and re-establish His deen in our time. And everything that we do along the way, every project we  initiate, to get us there is simply a means to an end. Now, there is a danger, when we become so involved in the means that those means can become an end in themselves and take on a life of their own, thereby becoming a distraction from Allah and an impediment to carrying out His will. And even, in certain extreme cases, of those means taking the place of the Creator so that it becomes the object of one’s worship and focus of one’s devotion. That thing takes on a reality that it does not have and an importance that it does not merit. And all of our time and energy is spent in its service. If that happens, then even if that thing is not in itself displeasing to Allah, it behoves us to step away from it and either go at it again with a fresh renewed intention or engage upon a different course of action. And that to a certain extent is what has happened with the call for gold dinars and silver dirhams.
The establishment of the dinar and dirham has, for some, become an end in itself, when it is has only ever been the means, the means towards the establishment of zakat and equitable transaction. Therein lies its value and worth. Shaykh Abdalqadir says, “Yet its meaning (i.e. the meaning of the gold dinar and silver dirham) lay in its application as an instrument of a Taken Zakat…This has not happened.” Why? Because, to a degree, its establishment has become our primary goal and that of zakat our secondary one, when it ought to be the other way around. It has become a distraction, so we need to step back from it and make our intention pure once again. And then we must reenter the fray at the place where we are most likely to have success, the place of least resistance, and that, as we mentioned in the first khutba is in trade. Trade that avoids unjust increase in the transaction will inevitably give rise to the use of equitable means of exchange and so may bring about the use of gold and silver more swiftly anyway than forming institutions based upon dinars and dirhams. Any action, no matter how small, that is done solely for the face of Allah brings swift results and success, but no amount of toil and striving will bring success to an endeavour done for any other reason. And that is what we must ever be on our guard against. Allah says,

وَقَدِمْنَا إِلَى مَا عَمِلُوا مِنْ عَمَلٍ فَجَعَلْنَاهُ هَبَاءً مَنْثُوراً

the translation of which is, “We will come to the actions they have done and make them scattered specks of dust.” And the Prophet said,

أخلص دينك يكفك القليل من العمل

“Make your deen pure and sincere, and you will be able to make do with but a small amount of action.” We ask Allah to place sincerity in our actions and make everything that we do be purely for His face. We ask Allah to protect us from idols and distractions and from making the means an end in themselves, and that He give success to all our projects and endeavours. We ask that He place us at the forefront of those carrying out His Will and doing His work in this age, and give us the furqan and wisdom to recognise the path that takes most swiftly to Him. 

 اللهم أرنا الحق حقا وارزقنا اتباعه وأرنا الباطل باطلا وارزقنا اجتنابه

“O Allah, allow us to see what is true as being true and enable us to follow it, and allow to see what is false and being false and enable us to avoid it.” Ameen

إِنَّ اللهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ، يَا أَيُهَا الذِينَ آمَنُواْ صَلُّواْ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُواْ تَسْلِيماً. 

اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ  أَجْمَعِينَ. وَارْضَ اللَّهُمَّ عَنِ الْخُلَفَاءِ الرَّاشِدِينَ أَبِي بَكْرٍ وَعُمَرَ وَعُثْمَانَ وَعَلِيٍّ، وعن أم المومنين عائشة التي أمرنا الله في سورة النور أن ندافع عنها، وَعَنْ سَائِرِ الصَّحَابَةِ أَجْمَعِينَ، خُصُوصاً اِلأَنْصَارَ مِنْهُمْ وَالمُهَاجِرِينَ، وَعَنِ التَّابِعِينَ وَتَابِعِي التَّابِعِينَ وَمَنْ تَبِعَهُمْ بِإِحْسَانٍ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ.

اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِ وُلَاةَ أُمُورِ المُسْلِمِينَ لِمَا يُرْضِيكَ وَلِاتِّبَاعِ سُنَّةِ نَبِيِّكَ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَهُمْ عَلَى الصِّرَاطِ المُسْتَقِيمِ، وَأَصْلِحْهُمْ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ. 

اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى شَيْخِنَا، وَعَلَى أَمِيرِنَا، وَعَلَى جَمِيعِ أُمَرَاءِ وَزُعَمَاءِ المُسْلِمِينَ. 

اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى المُسْلِمِينَ فِي هَذِهِ المَدِينَةِ، وَوَفِّقْهُمْ لِمَا تُحِبُّهُ وَتَرْضَاهُ يَا أَكْرَمَ الأَكْرَمِينَ. 

اللَّهُمَّ أَعِزَّ الإِسْلَامَ وَالمُسِْلمِينَ، وَاخْذُلِ الْكُفْرَ وَالْكَافِرِينَ، وَانْصُرِ المُجَاهِدِينَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللهِ. وَاجْعَلْ كَلِمََتَكَ هِيَ العُلْيَا وَكَلِمَةَ الْكُفْرِ هِيَ السُّفْلَى. 

رَبَّنَا ءَاتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقَِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ. 

إِنَّ اللهَ يَامُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَى، وَيَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالمُنكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ، يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَّكَّرُونَ، وَلَذِكْرُ اللهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ. وَقُومُواْ إِلَى صَلاتِكُمْ يَرْحَمُكُمُ اللهُ.